


what is this feeling (so sudden and new)

by televangelists



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: College AU, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, background mermista/perfuma, you can fit so many tropes in this baby
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-17
Updated: 2020-07-17
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:07:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,719
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25342948
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/televangelists/pseuds/televangelists
Summary: When Adora wakes up the next morning, it’s strange hearing the familiar ring of her alarm in the unfamiliar space of her dorm room. If she shuts her eyes, for a moment she can almost pretend that she’s at home.“Can you turn that thing the fuck off?”Or maybe not.[Adora and Catra are roommates at college. It goes about as well as you would expect.]
Relationships: Adora/Catra (She-Ra), Mermista/Perfuma (She-Ra)
Comments: 17
Kudos: 466





	what is this feeling (so sudden and new)

**Author's Note:**

> if you recognize the title from wicked then you already know what's up
> 
> edit: the lovely twitter user blightofmylife illustrated a scene from this fic which can be found [here](https://twitter.com/blightofmylife/status/1286153738185576448?s=20) (although it does contain spoilers i guess so if you don't want to know how the story goes, wait till you're done to check it out)

Adora thinks it would be really cool to have superpowers.

If it were up to her, she’d be able to fly, and wear a flashy costume while she fights crime. Maybe a weapon would be cool too - something like a giant sword, good for scaring her enemies and cutting really big cakes. 

And, she thinks, she’d really like to have superstrength. Especially in moments like these.

“These are so heavy,” Adora complains, shifting the stack of cardboard boxes in her arms so that the weight is mostly on her right side. “Are we almost there?”

Glimmer looks back at her. “One more flight of stairs, and then it’s our hall.”

“Of all the days for the elevator to break down,” Adora mutters as they struggle up the steps.

Bow, carrying an even taller stack of boxes, looks over at Adora. “You think you have it bad? At least you don’t have to carry Glimmer’s stuff on top of your own.”

“True,” Adora laughs. “I think she packed her entire house in there.”

“Hey!” Glimmer objects. “I only packed the essentials. Besides, you guys are fine to carry all of this stuff. Isn’t that what your early morning workouts are for?”

“You’d be able to carry your own boxes if you worked out with us,” Adora points out.

“Yeah, but what fun would that be?”

Bow points to a door on the left side of the hall, almost dropping a few boxes in the process. “Glimmer, I think this is your room. 413, right?”

“Yeah, this is it,” Glimmer says. “Just go in and put everything down by the desks.”

“Of course,” Bow grumbles. “Would you like me to make you a cup of tea while you’re at it?”

Glimmer rolls her eyes and leans up to kiss him on the cheek before giving him a little shove inside the room. Then she turns back to Adora. “Okay, which room is yours?”

“420,” Adora says. “You don’t have to come along with me. It’s fine.” 

“Are you sure?” Glimmer asks dubiously. “I still feel bad that we’re not rooming together.”

Adora waves her off. “It’s fine, it’s fine. Who knew that it was a Bright Moon University policy that you can’t choose your roommates?”

“Well, _we_ would have,” Glimmer admits. “If we’d read the housing forms more carefully.”

“Don’t worry about me,” Adora says. “I’ll be fine. Say hello to Mermista for me.” 

“Okay,” Glimmer says. “But let me know if your roommate is a psycho, or mean, or looks at you funny, and I’ll be there in two seconds to fight her.”

Adora eyes Glimmer, taking in her short stature. “You, fighting someone?”   
  
Glimmer huffs. “Fine, I won’t fight her, but I’ll give her some very dirty looks.”

“Thanks,” Adora smiles. “It’ll probably be fine. I’m sure she’ll be chill.” 

“Okay, great. I’ll see you at dinner, then.” Glimmer gives her a quick hug, awkwardly wrapping her arms around the stack of boxes, and then disappears into the room that she’ll be sharing with their high school friend, Mermista. Adora makes her way down the hall, looking for her room.

As she walks, she notices that the walls are covered in posters with cheesy looking slogans like “Welcome to U Bright Moon, where the future is Bright!” and “Reach for the Moon!” Adora makes a mental note to avoid buying anything from the campus store.

She finally finds the door with 420 inscribed on it and sets her boxes down, looking through her pockets for her key card. She slides the card through the slot and pushes the door open, dragging her boxes in, and her jaw drops.

The room is big - much bigger than Glimmer’s, based on what Adora saw when Bow opened the door - and there’s a large fridge standing by the ends of the beds. An open door next to one of the closets leads into a bathroom, and the windows at the far end of the room look like they’d be sold at an interior design store.

Adora had no idea that  _ anyone _ in college could live like this, let alone freshmen. She hadn’t even expected to get her own bathroom.

She grins to herself and starts unpacking. 

Fifteen minutes later, she’s pretty much settled in. Her clothes are in the closet, her snacks are in the fridge, and her bed is made neatly. She’d left the bed closer to the bathroom for her roommate, figuring they might want it more.

There’s no tape in the desk drawers, and Adora is in the middle of trying to decide whether to stick up a poster with chewing gum when the door flies open. Adora looks over at the person who opened it, and almost swallows her gum.

The girl standing in the doorway is shorter than her by a few inches, with short, messy brown hair and a sprinkle of freckles across her nose. She’s wearing black from head to toe - a black jacket over a black and white shirt, ripped black jeans, and black combat boots - and carrying a large cardboard box under her arm.

She’s really pretty, Adora notes - but that isn’t important. 

“Hey,” Adora says, swallowing down her nervousness. “Uh, I’m Adora, and I’m your roommate. You’re Catra, right?”

The girl looks at her, and Adora notices with a jolt that her eyes are two different colors. One is blue, and one is yellow. 

Adora’s never seen anything like it, and it takes her a moment to realize that she’s staring.

“Yeah, that’s me,” Catra says. She crosses over to the empty bed, putting her box down. “You don’t care if I play music, do you?”

“Not really, as long as it’s not - ” 

“Good, ’cause I’m gonna be playing it anyways.” Catra pulls out a record player and a stack of vinyls, setting them on the table next to her bed. Adora doesn’t think she’s ever seen anyone their age who owns a record player.

“Um, okay,” Adora says. “So, I was thinking, as long as we’re roommates, maybe we should sort of try to get to know each other?”

Catra looks up at her, tipping her head to one side. “Your name is Adora, yeah?”

Adora frowns, confused. “Yes? I just said that.”

“There, then,” Catra says. “We know each other.” She nods, and then goes back to sorting through her vinyls. 

“Oh,” Adora says, a little deflated. She hadn’t exactly wanted to become best friends forever, but she’d thought that her roommate might at least want to be  _ friendly _ . “Well, alright then. Just so you know, the right rack in the bathroom is for clean towels, and the left one is for dirty towels.”

Catra doesn’t look up from the vinyls, but Adora keeps going anyway. She put a lot of thought into the kind of room she wants to have, because she likes everything to be organized.

“Since we have a fridge, I thought maybe we should label our food, so that we don’t end up getting things mixed up...” She trails off, watching as Catra gets up and walks over to the fridge, opens the door, and starts to rummage through the contents. 

“Oh, chocolate milk,” Catra says, grabbing the carton that Adora brought specifically to eat with her cornflakes. “I love this shit. You don’t mind, do you?” Without waiting for Adora’s answer, Catra tips her head back and starts drinking from the bottle. Adora can only stare in disbelief. 

This is going to be a long school year.

//

When Adora wakes up the next morning, it’s strange hearing the familiar ring of her alarm in the unfamiliar space of her dorm room. If she shuts her eyes, for a moment she can almost pretend that she’s at home. 

“Can you turn that thing the fuck off?”

Or maybe not.

Adora looks over to the other bed, where Catra’s almost completely hidden under a messy pile of sheets and blankets. She doesn’t think that Catra even tucked the sheets in when she made the bed.

“Sorry,” Adora says. “I didn’t think it would be so loud.”

Catra buries her head under a pillow. “Why are you awake? Why couldn’t I have a roommate who doesn’t want to wake up at the crack of dawn?”

Adora is a little annoyed now. “Catra, it’s nine in the morning. I have class.” She frowns. “Don’t you have class too?”

“Yeah, and what about it?”

“You’ll be late if you don’t get up, won’t you?”

“Yeah, and what about it?” Catra repeats.

Adora gives up. If Catra wants to be late on her first day of class, that’s her business. 

“Okay, well, bye,” Adora says, scooping up her backpack. “I’ll see you later, I guess.”

She’s halfway out the door before she hears Catra’s reply: “Not if I see you first.”

//

Adora’s first class is two hours long and packed with more information than she’s ever had thrown at her before. She rushes back to her room with a notebook full of scribbles that don’t quite make sense and a rising sense of panic.

If this is what the first class on the first day is like, she doesn't know how she’s going to deal with the rest of the year.

As she turns into the hall where her room is, she hears music coming from somewhere in the building. Loud music that’s filled with angry guitars and drums and a lot of singing that sounds more like screaming. 

“That’s so annoying,” Adora mutters to herself as she swipes her key card. “Playing music that loud in a public dorm? What kind of inconsiderate person would do that?”

Her question is answered when she pushes the door open to find Catra, lying in bed again - or maybe still. The only sign that she’s even moved all morning is the vinyl spinning around on the record player, which Adora now realizes is the source of the loud music.

“Catra, what are you doing?” Adora asks. She has to yell over the music. 

Catra lazily raises an eyebrow at her. “Listening to music. What’s it sound like?”

“Does it have to be that loud?”   


“Last night you said you didn’t mind if I played music, remember?”   


“Well, yeah, but - ” Adora splutters. “I didn’t mean you should put the volume on full.”

Catra just shrugs. She still looks sleepy somehow, despite the blaring music, and Adora inwardly softens a little. Catra looks nice when she’s tired; her hair is wavy and her eyes are half-closed and there’s a mark on her face where it’s been pressed against her sheet. It’s almost cute.

Adora shakes her head. That’s not important.

“Oh, hey,” Catra says, and Adora perks up. Maybe she’s getting somewhere with Catra after all. Maybe she’ll get a decent conversation, even an apology.

“Yeah?” she asks hopefully. 

One side of Catra’s mouth curves upwards into a lazy smile. “We’re out of chocolate milk. Can you get some more if you’re leaving again?”

Adora slams the door as hard as she can on the way out of the room. She can hear Catra laughing behind her.

//

“I’m telling you guys!” Adora says the next day. “Catra is a complete psychopath. It’s like she was put in my dorm room for no purpose other than to annoy me constantly.”

Glimmer looks shocked. “You let her take your chocolate milk? When I tried to pour myself some last month, you backhanded my bowl of cereal across the kitchen.”

“I didn’t let her!” Adora exclaims. “She  _ stole _ it!” 

“Alright, alright,” Bow says, glancing around at the tables around them. They’re sitting in the corner of the dining hall, but people are starting to stare, mostly because Adora is red in the face with anger and almost yelling. “Let’s just take a deep breath.” 

Adora inhales, forcing her breathing to steady. “Right. I’m fine.”

Glimmer gives her a sympathetic glance. “Well, it’s only been two days. Maybe she’ll get better over time?”

“I hope so,” Adora mutters. “Otherwise I may actually have to murder her.”

//

Adora buys herself more chocolate milk on the way back from her econ class, and she’s glad to see that Catra isn’t in the room. After pouring herself a nice big glass, she digs out a sticky note and a black sharpie. 

She scrawls out a message in big, bold block letters -  _ ADORA’S. DO NOT TOUCH  _ \- and sticks it to the carton, then throws it in the fridge with the satisfaction of a job well done.

One day later, the carton is empty again.

//

“Alright, that’s it!” Adora yells, banging on the bathroom door. “Get out here right now. I’m done with this.”

Catra’s voice comes back, muffled by the door between them. “Do you mind? I’m getting dressed.”

“I don’t care,” Adora snaps. “Get out here!”

The door opens and Catra steps out, and for a moment, Adora’s mind goes totally blank. 

Catra’s wearing a black denim jacket over a red crop top, along with her usual ripped jeans. Adora’s eyes dart down before she can stop them, taking in the smooth, tan skin of Catra’s stomach, and she completely forgets why she was mad at Catra in the first place.

“See something you like?” Catra says, the hint of a smirk in her voice, and Adora drags her gaze back up to Catra’s face.

“No,” Adora says loudly, determined to get herself back on track. “Actually, I see something I  _ don’t _ like.” She waves the empty milk carton in Catra’s face. “I told you to stop drinking my milk! Do you have some kind of memory loss issue?”

Catra tips her head to one side, looking Adora up and down. “Sorry,” she says, not sounding sorry at all. “It’s just that I get so -  _ thirsty _ sometimes.” She leans in closer, until they’re almost touching, and Adora stares into her different colored eyes and tries to remember how to breathe.

She says something really intelligent like, “Uhhh?”   


Catra laughs and flicks the empty carton out of her hands. “Anyways, I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”

“As if I would!” Adora yells indignantly. 

When Catra is gone, Adora slides down onto the floor until she’s lying next to the milk carton. 

That didn’t go the way she planned it.

//

Adora is studying the next afternoon when there’s a knock on the door and Glimmer and Bow appear, grinning at her.

“Hey,” Adora says, closing her psych textbook. “What’s up, you guys?”

Glimmer pokes her head into the bathroom. “What’s up is that we’re here to see your roommate.”

“Yeah,” Bow adds. “We need to know if she’s really as bad as you say she is!”

Adora rolls her eyes. “Why can’t you just take my word for it? I told you, she’s evil.”

“And we believe you!” Glimmer says. “We just want to see it with our own eyes.”

“Well, you can’t,” Adora says. “She’s not here right now. Thank god.”

Bow looks around the room, his eyes wide. “Adora, why do you have such a nice room?” 

“Wait, yeah,” Glimmer says. “My room doesn’t even have a fridge. And there’s only one window.”

“Yeah, the room is nice, but not when you have to share it with Catra,” Adora insists. 

Glimmer shrugs. “I mean, I’d be willing to make that sacrifice. You even have a toaster in here!” 

The door swings open a little more and Mermista slouches in. “Hey, Glimmer. I was wondering where you went. There’s this dumb kid who won’t stop following me around, so I told him that I had to go help you with like, a medical emergency so I could get rid of him.” 

Glimmer frowns. “I don’t have a medical emergency.” 

“I know that, I just needed to escape. The guy is wearing a  _ bandana _ . And he won’t stop singing weird songs.” Mermista sighs, then casts a glance around the room. “This room is kind of nice. Why are we here again?” 

“We’re here because Bow and Glimmer wanted to see Catra,” Adora says exasperatedly. 

“Who’s Catra?” 

“My psychopath roommate!” Adora yells, completely fed up with this topic. Catra’s not even in the room, and she’s still finding a way to ruin Adora’s life. 

The door opens again and the devil herself walks in, grinning like a cat. 

“Such kind words, Adora,” Catra says, smirking at her. “Careful, there. I might start to think you like me.” 

“What - I can’t stand you,” Adora splutters. 

Catra turns towards Bow, Glimmer, and Mermista, who are all staring at her. “Who are these people? Adora, do you actually have  _ friends _ ?” 

“Of course I have friends!” Adora says indignantly. “Who asked you anyways?” 

Mermista raises a hand. “I mean, I’m not really her friend. We barely know each other.” 

“Mermista, we’ve known each other for five years!” 

“Whatever.” 

Catra shrugs, and then she looks at Glimmer and her expression changes. “Hey, who’s she? She’s cute.” 

“She can speak for herself, thank you very much,” Glimmer says with a frown, and Adora’s never been more thankful for her best friend. But that gratitude disappears a second later when Glimmer blushes and says, “Wait, do you really think I’m cute?” 

Adora elbows her in the ribs. “Glimmer, don’t listen to her!” 

Glimmer looks starry-eyed, and Adora feels a wave of annoyance rushing over her. Why doesn’t Catra think  _ she’s _ cute? 

She mentally gives herself a slap, reminding herself that  _ that’s not the point.  _

Catra just laughs and opens the closet, pulling out the black denim jacket that she seems to wear every day. “I just came back to get my jacket, but it was nice to meet all of you.” She winks at Glimmer, blows an exaggerated kiss towards Adora, and then breezes out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. 

Adora thinks there might be steam coming out of her ears. 

“At least close the door!” she yells, but Catra is already gone. 

Adora takes a deep breath, and then another one. “Sorry about that, guys. I told you she’s annoying.” 

“Are you kidding?” Glimmer says excitedly. “She’s so cool!” 

“That jacket is so fashionable,” Bow says dreamily. “Almost as good as my crop tops.” 

“Uh, and she’s hot as fuck,” Mermista offers. “Like, no offense to Glimmer, but I would totally switch rooms with you if it didn’t involve moving all my stuff.” 

Adora groans. “I can’t believe you guys.” 

Bow opens the fridge, poking through the contents. “Hey Adora, where’s your chocolate milk?” 

Adora picks up a pillow and throws it at him. 

// 

Adora buys three more cartons of chocolate milk that week, and every single one of them not-so-mysteriously disappears.

When she confronts Catra, her roommate just alternates between pretending that she’s deaf or pretending that she doesn’t know what Adora’s talking about. One time she even goes so far as to say that she’s lactose intolerant, which makes Adora want to scream in frustration. 

“I can’t take it anymore!” Adora says at dinner one night, waving her spoon in the air. Drops of tomato soup go flying, splattering orangey-red spots across Glimmer’s notebook pages. 

Glimmer wipes at her notes, sighing. “Adora, you need to let this go.” 

“Let it go? Let it  _ go? _ How can I let it go? She’s a thief!” 

“Well then stop buying milk. She can’t steal what’s not there.” 

“But then I won’t have any milk either,” Adora argues. 

Glimmer looks unsympathetic. “Look, Adora. I love you, but we are all so, so sick of hearing about this.” 

“Yeah, it’s kind of getting old,” Mermista says. 

Bow just offers her an apologetic smile. 

“Ugh,” Adora groans. “I’m sorry, you guys. She’s just so - so  _ Catra _ .” 

“If you really want to get rid of her, you could poison the milk,” Mermista offers. “Then you wouldn’t be a murder suspect, because it was your milk and it would seem like you were the target. That was the plot in one of the Mer-Mystery novels...they had to figure out who poisoned the seaweed soda…”

Glimmer shoots Mermista a look. “Adora can’t poison her roommate. That’s illegal.” 

Adora lights up, a plan forming in her mind. “That’s a great idea, Mermista. Thank you.” 

“Adora!” Bow and Glimmer exclaim at the same time. “You can’t - ” 

“Oh, come on,” Adora says. “I’m not going to  _ poison _ her. I’m just going to give her a taste of her own medicine.” 

//

It takes two trips to the grocery store, half a gallon of spilled milk, and a cocoa-powder stained carpet before Adora manages to get everything right, but finally the trap is set. Now all she has to do is watch and wait.

And she doesn’t have to wait long.

“Will you stop writing so loudly?” Catra says irritably the next night. She’s lying on her bed with a book open, watching as Adora works through her stats homework.

Adora scowls. “I’m writing like a normal person.”

“Pfft, right,” Catra scoffs. “You push the pencil down so unnecessarily hard that I can hear it ripping through the paper. You’re going to give yourself carpal tunnel syndrome before the age of twenty.”

“I am not!”

Catra raises an eyebrow, giving her one of those annoying smirks that makes Adora’s heart race. (From anger, probably.) “Just wait and see.”

“As if my ‘loud’ writing is anything compared to you and your stupid record player!” Adora shoots back. “You’ll be deaf in a year, mark my words. And you can’t even play  _ good _ music.” 

“My music is  _ amazing _ compared to yours,” Catra says, looking angry now. Adora grins; it seems that she’s hit a nerve.

“Right, because nothing says amazing like a bunch of depressing people screaming constantly,” she snorts. “Come on, Catra. I know you’re not as edgy as you want me to think. You can ditch the tough guy act and put on some decent music once in a while.”

Catra narrows her eyes and jumps off her bed into Adora’s lap, knocking Adora and her chair to the floor. Adora, who’s now lying flat on her back, looks up at Catra’s face hovering just above hers and tries her hardest not to think about how they’re pressed together right now because  _ gross _ , she doesn’t want to be that close to Catra.

Her breathing is getting shallow just thinking about it.

“Hey, Adora,” Catra says, her voice a little raspy. “Still think I’m not so tough?”

Adora swallows, hard, and stares into Catra’s eyes. She doesn’t think she’ll ever get sick of looking at the blue-yellow contrast, and Catra’s body is really warm against her own, and honestly she might be content to just lie here underneath Catra all night.

Catra smiles lazily at her, and Adora catches a glimpse of a sharp, perfect white canine tooth. “Look at you, enjoying this,” Catra says. “I knew you’d like being on the bottom.”

Adora turns bright red. Enough is enough.

With a Herculean effort, she shoves Catra up and off of her. “You’re disgusting.”

“I don’t know about that,” Catra laughs. “I’ve been told that I taste pretty good, if you get what I mean.” She gives Adora a leering smile, and Adora blushes even harder.

“Do you ever run out of lewd jokes?”

“Never,” Catra says with a wink. “Trust me. I could last  _ all night _ .”

Adora feels a flash of heat run through her at those words, and she feels like beating her head against the wall, because she needs to stop reacting like this. Needs to stop letting Catra get her all worked up, all hot and bothered...

And now her own brain is the one making lewd jokes. Great.

“My fist will be going all night with your face if you don’t shut up,” she snaps. 

“So what I’m hearing is, you’re into fisting.” 

Adora bites down on her lip so hard, she’s worried she’ll draw blood. She can practically feel the circuits in her brain blowing out. “Just let me do my homework in peace!”

Catra shrugs. “If that’s what you really want.” She slides across the floor to the fridge. “Hey, did you buy any more milk?”

“Yeah, actually, I bought some yesterday,” Adora says, trying to act casual. “But if you drink it, I’m going to - I’m going to report you to the RA.”

“Right,” Catra drawls. “I’ll take that chance.” She pulls out the milk carton and unscrews the cap, tilting her head back to take a drink. Adora grins in anticipation. Any moment now - 

_ “EW!”  _ Catra yells, turning her head towards the sink and spitting out a mouthful of brown liquid. “What the fuck  _ is _ this?”

Adora gives her an innocent look. “Is something wrong?”

“Don’t give me that bullshit,” Catra says, wiping at her mouth with the back of her hand. The edge of her shirt lifts as she does so, and Adora has to make a conscious effort not to look. “What the hell did you put in this bottle? Rat poison?”

“Don’t be dramatic,” Adora says, letting a smile take over her face now. It feels so good -  _ so _ damn good - to be the one getting under Catra’s skin for once. “It’s just chocolate milk.”

“It is  _ not _ .” 

“Is so,” Adora counters. “It’s just, you know, the kind made with normal milk and unsweetened cocoa powder.”

Catra gives her a look of disgust. “What kind of psychopath puts unsweetened cocoa powder milk in the chocolate milk carton just to mess with their innocent roommate?”

“ _ Innocent roommate? _ ” Adora asks, her voice rising a little. “More like, what kind of psychopath constantly drinks their roommate’s chocolate milk after being repeatedly asked to stop?” 

“It’s in the fridge! It’s fair game!”

“Not if it’s labeled!”

Catra huffs. “Labels don’t mean anything. For all you know, I can’t read!” 

“You’re at college!” Adora shouts. “Of course you can read! Lighten up, it was just a harmless prank.”

“Harmless, my ass,” Catra snaps back. “I’m going to be coughing this cocoa shit out of my lungs for days.”

Adora smirks at her. “Looks like I finally got the better of you, huh.” 

“For now,” Catra says, her eyes narrowing. “You better watch your back, Adora.” She turns away to toss the milk carton in the trash, and Adora makes a mental note to tell Bow and Glimmer that if she disappears one day, they should check under Catra’s bed for her body.

//

Adora spends the next few days on tenterhooks, waiting for Catra to take her revenge, but nothing happens. They get into a few more arguments, one of which ends with Catra flinging a shampoo bottle at Adora’s head for taking the shower first, but that’s all fairly standard. Adora knows that Catra’s capable of horrible things (or at least, she highly suspects it) and the waiting is starting to drive her crazy.

Catra isn’t even drinking her milk anymore. Adora is able to have a bowl of cereal with chocolate milk for the first time all school year, but she can’t quite enjoy it properly because she’s so stressed about what Catra might do to her.

During psych class on the third morning after the chocolate milk incident, Adora finds herself zoning out. She scribbles absently in the margin of her notebook, dropping her head into her hand and letting her eyes close a little bit. She just needs to rest for a moment or two.

Adora doesn’t know when exactly she falls asleep, but she dreams of sinking head-first into a cold swamp. Down, down down…

“Uh, excuse me,” a voice next to her says, and Adora jerks awake again. “Class is over, and you’re sleeping in my yogurt.”

Adora lifts her head to find that her hair is covered in strawberry yogurt, and streaks of the pink stuff are dripping down her face.

“Oh my god,” she says, horrified. “I’m so sorry.”

The boy sitting next to her smiles widely. “No problem! I just kept eating around your hair.” 

Adora raises an eyebrow at him, wondering if he’s a little bit insane. She’s still a little dazed from being asleep, but he looks vaguely familiar; his hair is brown and messy, and he’s wearing a red bandana around his neck.

“Okay, well, thanks,” Adora says finally. “Uh, I should probably go wash this off.” She gathers her books and starts to file out of their row of seats. 

“Wait, wait,” the guy calls after her. “Do you by any chance know a girl named Mermista?”

Something in Adora’s brain clicks into place. This must be the guy that Mermista said wouldn’t stop following her around. 

“Uh, no,” Adora lies. “Never heard of her.”

The guy’s face falls, and Adora feels kind of bad about lying, but there’s no way she’s about to sell her friend out to this guy, even if he does look harmless (and clueless).

“I thought you looked like this girl who I think she’s friends with,” the guy says sadly. “I just want her to give me a chance! She’s so beautiful and funny and perfect…” He sighs, wiping at one of his eyes. “Actually, I wrote a song about her the other day. Do you want to hear it?”

“I’d love to,” Adora lies, “but I kind of have to, you know, go wash this yogurt off my face?”

The guy clearly isn’t listening to her, because he’s already belting out a song.

_ “Oh Mermista...you’re the one...I think dating you would be so fun...there’s no one else, it must be you...with your beautiful eyes of ocean blue…” _

“Stop! Stop,” Adora says loudly. “I mean, um, your singing is lovely, but there’s a slight issue. Mermista’s eyes are brown.”

The guy droops slightly. “Oh. Yes, I know, but brown doesn’t rhyme. Still, it’s no matter. There’s another twelve verses to go.” He clears his throat, and Adora can’t take it anymore.

“Stop singing!” she says frantically. “I lied, okay? I know Mermista, and I’ll give her your number if you promise to never sing in front of me again.”

“Deal!” the guy exclaims, ripping a page out of his notebook and scrawling a line of numbers onto it. “My name’s Sea Hawk, by the way.”

“I’m Adora. It was - uh - nice to meet you.” Adora grabs the paper out of his hand and runs, before she’s subjected to another musical number.

As she makes her way down the corridor of her residence hall, she passes Mermista going the other way. Perfect timing.

“Hey, Mermista,” Adora calls out. “Wait up.”

Mermista looks at her with a slightly disgusted expression. “What’s that stuff all over your face?”

“Oh. Strawberry yogurt, I think. I have something for you.”

“That’s gross. It’s in your hair too. Stay away from me, okay?” 

Adora rolls her eyes and holds out the paper with Sea Hawk’s number. “Here. Take this.”

Mermista takes it with two fingers, giving it a dubious look. “What for?”

“I ran into that kid who wants to ask you out and I told him I’d give you his number,” Adora mumbles, hoping Mermista won’t catch the words.

“You did  _ what _ ?”

“Come on! He seems kind of nice.”

“I don’t like nice people.”

“You like me.”

“I  _ tolerate _ you,” Mermista corrects. “Fine, I’ll text him. Go wash that shit out of your hair before it dries.” 

Adora gives her a quick one-armed hug, which Mermista doesn’t reciprocate - probably because she doesn’t want to get yogurt all over her shirt - and then heads for her room.

Catra’s not there, thankfully, and Adora gathers up a clean outfit before making her way into the bathroom. She steps into the shower and cranks the water to the hottest temperature as the room fills with the sweet smell of artificial strawberries.

She wipes at her face, trying to wash off the dried smears of yogurt, and absentmindedly wonders where Catra is. It seems like her roommate is only ever home half the time these days, and while Adora is glad about it, a tiny part of her kind of wishes that she saw Catra more often.

She has no idea why, because Catra is nothing but annoying.

Adora frowns to herself thoughtfully. She’s never met anyone she completely hates, so there has to be  _ something _ she likes about Catra.

Catra has nice eyes, Adora has to admit. And a nice voice, when it’s not busy throwing insults at Adora. Her style is nice too, if a little bit edgy for Adora’s taste, and her body is pretty near perfect, all tan skin and smooth curves and -

Adora snaps back to reality, dragging her thoughts away from being anywhere near Catra’s body. She has no idea what the fuck she’s thinking, but she needs to snap out of it. She shakes her head and reaches for the shampoo bottle, hoping that her brain will fall back in line effective immediately.

After thoroughly washing her hair and rinsing it out, Adora gets out of the shower and starts drying off. The smell of strawberry yogurt is all but gone, and she’s happy to be clean again. She glances in the mirror while she’s toweling herself off, and then freezes.

She’s gotten rid of all the yogurt, so why is her hair still pink?

Adora leans over the sink, rubbing away the steam on the mirror, and stares at her reflection in horror. Her hair is streaked with pink; the brightest, most attention-grabbing pink she’s ever seen. It’s the kind of pink that should have its own individual place on the color chart, under a name like Neon Rose.

This is definitely not because of the yogurt.

Adora grabs her shampoo bottle, pouring some of the liquid out into her hand, and her worst nightmares are confirmed. The shampoo is bright pink and filled with hair dye.

How the fuck did she not notice?

Oh, right. She was too busy thinking about Catra.

Adora grits her teeth.  _ Catra.  _ This is all her fault.

She hears footsteps coming from the room outside and barges out of the bathroom, still wrapped in nothing but a towel, ready to absolutely murder her roommate. 

Catra is standing by the bookshelf, flipping through her vinyls, and Adora feels her blood pressure mounting dangerously high.

“Catra!” she shouts. 

Catra whirls around, startled, and her eyes do a quick up-and-down sweep of Adora’s body before she starts laughing.

“Hey, Adora,” she grins. “Did your hair get sunburned?”

Adora’s so mad she can barely even see straight. She shoves her face right into Catra’s, glaring. “You think this is funny? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Hey, now,” Catra says, holding up a hand. “Remember what you said to me after almost giving me food poisoning? It’s just a harmless prank.”

“ _ Harmless _ ? Look at my hair!”

“It’s semi-permanent. It’ll wash out in a couple of weeks. Besides - ” Catra reaches out, twirling a strand of Adora’s hair around her finger. “I think it looks nice like this.”

Adora blinks, finding herself strangely breathless. “You do?”

“I do,” Catra says. “Now no one will be able to call you a dumb blonde.”

“I - ” Adora gasps. “No one calls me that!”

Catra shrugs. “ _ I _ do. In my head, anyway.”

Adora lets out a growling noise. “You’re horrible!” she shouts, swiping at Catra.

“Hey, don’t get all worked up,” Catra says, dodging the blow easily. “You’ll drop your towel. Not that I’d be opposed to that.” She grins, licking her bottom lip, and Adora can tell that she’s turning pink enough to match her hair. 

She marches back into the bathroom, slamming the door loudly. 

(For the rest of the day, she can’t stop thinking about Catra saying _not that_ _I’d be opposed to that._ )

“Get it together,” Adora mutters to herself, banging a fist against her forehead. “There’s no room for distractions.”

Catra has upped the ante. This is war now.

//

Adora’s hair stays electric pink for the next two weeks, and a full-scale prank war breaks out in room 420.

Adora puts rotten bananas in Catra’s bed. Catra sneaks up on Adora and hits her in the face with a chocolate cream pie. Adora adjusts the water pressure in the shower so that it’s spraying like a fire hose, then lets Catra take the bathroom first the next morning.

It’s childish and stupid, but it’s actually kind of fun. 

Adora’s heading back to the room after psych class one day, carrying a bag of water balloons for her next prank - she’s planning to hide them in a bucket under her bed and throw them at Catra once her roommate has fallen asleep - when she runs into Glimmer and Mermista heading the other way.

“Oh, hey,” Glimmer says. “Haven’t seen you around much lately.” 

Adora winces. “Yeah, sorry. I’ve been a little bit busy.” 

Glimmer arches a knowing eyebrow. “Busy pranking Catra?” 

“Maybe.” 

“You’re really never going to let this go, are you?” Glimmer says, but she’s laughing a little bit. 

“I’m not giving up before she does,” Adora insists. “And speaking of giving up - ” She turns to Mermista. “Did you text Sea Hawk or not? I’m sick of him coming up to me after class and singing about you.” 

“Uh...I did,” Mermista says, uncharacteristically blushing a little bit. “I even went to go get coffee with him, but then I met one of his friends.” 

“Was there something wrong with her?” 

“Just the opposite,” Glimmer grins.

Mermista groans. “Ugh. Glimmer, stop it.” 

“She’s a biology major, and she’s really into plants,” Glimmer explains. “I think her name is Perfuma? Anyways, Mermista is head over heels now.” 

Adora laughs loudly. “You went on a date and fell for someone else in the middle of it? That’s ridiculous.” 

“Shut up,” Mermista mutters. “Go back to pranking your girlfriend.” 

“My  _ what _ ?” 

“You can’t tell me you’re not into her at least a little bit. You spend like, eighty percent of your time with us just talking about her.” 

“Because I hate her!” 

“Still…”

“You’re being illogical,” Adora declares. “As if I’d ever be into someone like her. She’s  _ so _ not my type. She’s shallow and irritating and inconsiderate and annoying and - ” 

Glimmer cuts in, clearly unwilling to listen (again) to Adora’s laundry list of things she hates about Catra. “Adora, come get dinner with us tonight, okay? You deserve a night away from all this Catra stuff.” 

Adora hesitates. “I need to fill up these water balloons.” 

“We’re going to that taco place you like,” Glimmer says in a singsong voice. 

“Dinner it is.” 

//

Adora, Glimmer, Mermista, and Bow all meet up at Taco Nation later that night. They sit in their favorite booth, two away from the back door, and order taco specials and giant pitchers of lemonade. 

Bow tells them about the kid in his morning lecture who brought in a microwave, and Adora spreads out her econ notes and pretends she’s studying for the quiz tomorrow, and Mermista drinks Glimmer’s lemonade when she’s not looking. It’s fun and easy and light, and the night passes in a blur. 

Adora’s in a good mood when she makes her way back to the dorm that night, high on life and happiness and over-sugared lemonades. She’s in such a good mood that she even feels like she can be nice to Catra. 

So when she sees Catra sitting on the end of her bed, flipping through a battered paperback, Adora just smiles at her. 

“Hey, Catra,” she says, without the usual bite of annoyance in her voice. 

Catra frowns, her eyes narrowing in the way that Adora’s come to recognize as one of her signature moves. “What’s with you?”

Adora looks down at herself, wondering if she’d spilled taco sauce on herself or something. “What do you mean?”

“You’re being all nice. It’s creeping me out.”

“I’m nice! I’m a very nice person.”

Catra scoffs. “You’ve never even said a single nice word to me.”

“Well, I’m nice to people who deserve it,” Adora amends her statement. “But I’m feeling charitable tonight.”

“Whatever,” Catra says. “Good, then. I’d welcome a night without you yapping at me like an uptight little princess.” She leans forward to turn on her bedside lamp, and the light catches something on her neck.

Adora tilts her head to the side, trying to get a closer look, but there’s really no need. It’s quite obviously a hickey. 

Her good mood suddenly vanishes. 

(Really, it’s stupid. She has absolutely no reason to care who the hell Catra is seeing and what the hell she’s doing with them. She doesn’t even like Catra.

And yet - ) 

“You know what? Forget it,” she says shortly. “You don’t deserve my niceness.” 

“There you go,” Catra says, without looking up from her book. “That’s the Adora I know.”

“You don’t even know me,” Adora snaps. “You haven’t even tried to get to know me. You literally don’t care about anyone but yourself.”

Catra raises one shoulder in an insolent shrug. “I mean, I could think of a few ways you could get to know me better, if you catch my drift.”

“Fuck you,” Adora growls. 

“Is that a threat or a promise?”

Adora’s too annoyed to even reply to that one. She has no idea why, but she’s suddenly burning with anger and frustration - like, even more so than she is around Catra. She’s annoyed. More than annoyed; she’s  _ mad _ .

(It’s stupid. It’s so, so stupid. She doesn’t even like Catra.)

“Besides,” Catra says, reaching under her bed now, her face smug. “I’d say I know you pretty well. Well enough to expect this, anyway.” She brings out a full water balloon - one of  _ Adora’s _ water balloons - and throws it at her before Adora can do more than blink.

Adora splutters in shock, her hair now soaked and dripping onto the carpet. Catra grins at her. “I knew I could make you wet.”

Adora starts yelling at her so loudly that the RA has to come knock on their door and tell her to keep it down.

//

Two days after the water balloon incident, Adora makes her way back to her room feeling absolutely miserable. 

Nothing is going right for her today.

First there was the dining hall this morning, when the milk dispenser exploded on her. Then there was the guy who catcalled her on the way into the econ building. Then there was the statistics pop quiz that she’s sure she failed because the questions looked more like writing from some ancient language than math to her. Then there was the puddle outside the dorm room that she didn’t notice until too late. 

Adora really wants nothing more than to just curl up with Glimmer or Bow and watch shitty TV until she feels better about this disaster of a day, but they’re on a double date with Mermista, who’d finally found the guts to ask for Perfuma’s number. 

So here she is, walking home alone at nine at night, damp and slightly milk-stained and completely unhappy. 

She gets in the elevator and pushes the button for the fourth floor, noticing that there’s a brunette girl in the corner. 

“Do you need me to put your floor number in?” Adora asks. She may have had a shitty day, but she hasn’t forgotten her manners. 

“Oh no, it’s fine,” the girl says. “I’m going to the fourth floor too.” 

Adora frowns, because she knows pretty much everyone on her floor by now and she’s never seen this girl before in her life, but she shrugs it off. She really doesn’t care enough. 

The elevator doors slide open and they step out. Adora heads off to the left, expecting the other girl to go on her merry way, but she doesn’t. She follows Adora down the hall and waits right next to her while Adora is digging around in her pockets for her key card. 

“Can I help you?” Adora asks, when she can’t ignore it anymore. “Like, are you lost or something?” 

The girl blushes a little. “No, I don’t think so. I mean, I’m here to see Catra.” 

“Oh.” Suddenly Adora really, really doesn’t want to open the door. She wonders if this girl is the one responsible for the hickeys on Catra’s neck, and then wonders if she could pretend that she lost her key card and refuse to help the girl get into their room. 

If she’d thought she was having a bad day before, it’s ten times worse now. 

(She doesn’t want to think about why meeting one of Catra’s hookups is making her day worse.) 

Just as Adora is about to lie about not being able to get in, the door opens anyway and Catra pokes her head out. 

“Thought I heard voices,” she says. “Jesus, Adora, what happened to you? You look like shit. Like, even worse than usual.” 

Adora shoves past her into the room, more roughly than she normally would. “Fuck off, Catra. I’m really not in the mood today.” 

She collapses onto her bed, expecting Catra to take her little girlfriend and disappear, but Catra comes to hovers over her. “Are you okay?” 

“Like you care,” Adora mumbles. 

Catra looks down at her with an unfamiliar expression on her face. It’s almost like concern. “Where are your dumb friends? Can’t they come cheer you up?” 

“Busy,” Adora says. “I’m alone for tonight. Now go away, will you?” 

Catra lets out a huff of exasperation and steps back. “I can’t stand you.” 

Adora closes her eyes, not wanting to see Catra walk out the door with that girl, but Catra surprises her again. 

“Hey, Sally,” Catra says to the girl who’s still standing by the door. “I know we had plans tonight but I’m gonna have to cancel, okay?” 

“My name is Stacie,” the girl corrects. “And if you can’t even remember that, then forget about taking a rain check on tonight.” 

“Okay, whatever,” Catra says casually. “See you around.” The door slams shut, and Adora feels a weight sink down on the left side of the bed. She opens her eyes to see Catra sitting there. 

“What the fuck?” Adora asks. “What are you doing?” 

Catra sighs loudly. “Your friends are busy and you look like you’ve just been dumped and then hit by a truck when you were crossing the road in front of the dorm. I’m not going to leave you here to wallow in your misery like a loser.” 

(Adora would never admit it, but she’s already starting to perk up a little.) 

Catra’s at their dresser now, pulling clothes out and throwing them at her. “Here. Change into some dry stuff so you look slightly less ugly.” 

Adora picks up the clothes, noticing that the shirt is from a band she’s never even heard of. “Catra, is this your shirt?” 

“No. I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

“Alright,” Adora says with a grin, pulling the clean shirt over her head. “You know, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you’re starting to like me.” 

Catra frowns fiercely at her. “This is  _ not _ because I like you.” 

“If you say so.” Adora reaches for the clean pair of sweatpants, and then it’s her turn to frown. “Aren’t you going to turn around?” 

“You don’t want to give me a show, huh?”

“Catra!” 

“Fine, fine,” Catra huffs, turning her back. Adora changes at top speed, trying not to think about  _ giving Catra a show.  _

“So what now?” she asks. 

“Well,” Catra says with a devilish grin, “ when  _ I’m _ having a bad day, I - ”

“Don’t even finish that sentence if it’s going to be something sexual.” 

“You’re no fun,” Catra groans. “What do you do when you’re not having a good day, then?” 

“I watch shitty TV with Bow and Glimmer, usually,” Adora answers. “And we eat cake sometimes…” 

Catra stretches over to the desk and hands Adora her laptop. “Find something to watch. I’ll be right back.” 

Adora opens the laptop and starts scrolling through her options, feeling like she’s in some kind of alternate universe right now. Before today, she wouldn’t have even thought that Catra could have a civil five minute conversation with her, let alone help her feel better after a bad day. 

Catra bounds back over to the bed with two glasses of chocolate milk and a bag of chocolate chip cookies. Adora makes a face.

“Is this my milk?” 

“Uh, duh,” Catra says. “You’re the only one who buys this stuff. Do you want it or not?” 

Adora makes a grab for the glass and takes a long sip. She’s feeling better already. 

“What are we watching?” Catra asks. 

Adora quirks an eyebrow. “ _ We _ ?” 

Catra shoves against her leg. “Did I stutter?” 

“Well,” Adora says sheepishly. “I was going to watch Victorious.” 

“Isn’t that, like, a kids show?” 

“It’s on Teen Nick,” Adora defends herself. “Shut up and let me watch in peace.” 

Catra snorts softly but settles at Adora’s side, leaving a good ten inches of space in between them. Adora presses play.

The show starts, but Adora isn’t really paying attention. She’s too busy glancing over at Catra and hoping she won’t notice. 

Catra, despite her teasing, seems to actually like the show. One corner of her mouth is curved upwards in an amused smirk, and Adora catches her laughing - so quietly, it’s barely more than a breath - at some of the jokes. Her expression is softer than Adora has ever seen it, and Adora’s eyes keep catching on the freckles at the bridge of her nose. 

Before Adora can stop herself, she’s talking again. 

“Hey, Catra - ” 

Catra tips her head to the side, looking over at her. “Yeah?”

“When I’m watching TV with Bow and Glimmer, I - uh, well, usually we kind of cuddle,” Adora mumbles, wondering why her stupid mouth isn’t capable of shutting up right now. 

Catra pretends she’s sticking a finger down her throat. “Gross, what kind of sitcom family Kumbaya friend group do you have?”

Adora blushes. It seems like she’s always blushing around Catra. “Uh, never mind, then.”

“ _ God _ ,” Catra sighs, and then she’s moving farther onto the bed, sliding over to press up against Adora’s side. Adora lifts her left arm to make room, and Catra leans into her, tucking her head against Adora’s chest. “Happy now?”

Adora hums in agreement, resting her head against the top of Catra’s. Catra is soft and warm, and she smells good, like clean laundry and strawberries and vanilla and something else - something familiar. Adora pushes her nose into Catra’s hair, not even caring how weird that probably seems. 

“Catra,” she says, her voice a little muffled from her mouth pressing against Catra’s head. “Have you been stealing my shampoo?”

“Maybe,” Catra says, and Adora can feel Catra’s laughter against her chest. “Now shut up and watch.”

Adora shuts up and watches, and as they sit there in comfortable silence, curled up together like they’ve been here a thousand times before, she wonders when exactly she got so fond of Catra.

//

They fall asleep on Adora’s bed that night, still wrapped up in each other, and Adora wakes up first the next morning. She looks at Catra’s sleeping face, takes in her freckles and her eyelashes and her slightly parted lips, and feels something fluttering in her stomach.

She thinks about Catra’s dirty jokes and infuriating smirks and annoyingly pretty eyes, and remembers what Mermista said the other day.

_ You can’t tell me you’re not into her at least a little bit. _

Adora bites her lip, annoyed. She hates when Mermista is right. 

//

After that night, things change between Catra and Adora. 

They still argue, and they still fight. Catra still makes jokes that leave Adora burning in embarrassment. They still prank each other sometimes, and they still steal each other’s food and shower products. 

But there’s new things between them, too. They watch TV together on Thursday nights, and they get takeout pizza on Saturday afternoons while they study - or at least, while Adora studies and Catra lies on her bed doing nothing much. 

As strange as it seems to Adora, they’ve actually become friends. 

“You’re friends now?” Bow exclaims at lunch a few days later. “That’s so great!”

“It is pretty great,” Adora agrees, smiling.

“Thank god,” Mermista mutters. “I didn’t think I could take another day of listening to you bitch about her.”

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?”

Glimmer places a hand on top of Adora’s. “Adora, I love you, but yes. You were that bad.”

“Well,” Adora mumbles. “Whatever.”

Mermista gives her a considering look. “So how long is it going to be before you hook up with her?”

Adora chokes on her water, and Glimmer has to bang her on the back.

“I’m  _ not _ going to hook up with Catra,” Adora gasps, once she can breathe again.

Mermista just raises an eyebrow. “Sure you’re not.”

//

She wasn’t lying, Adora thinks to herself later that day. It’s not like she’s going to ever hook up with Catra. They’re friends now, but  _ just _ friends.

Sure, Adora sometimes gets butterflies when she looks at Catra. Sure, she secretly likes it when Catra steals her shirts and wears them to class. Sure, she’s never felt warmer than she does when she’s curled up against Catra. But that doesn’t necessarily mean anything. 

She could be platonically attracted to Catra. That’s a thing, isn’t it? Catra is one of the prettiest people she’s ever met, but that doesn’t mean Adora is  _ into _ her. It just means she has eyes.

_ I’m not into Catra,  _ Adora thinks.  _ End of story. _

//

An unfamiliar blonde girl shows up at their room the next day, and when Adora opens the door for her, she feels like slamming it shut again. 

“Hi,” the girl says. “Is Catra around?”

Adora casts a quick glance towards the bathroom, where she knows Catra is showering. “No, I don’t think she’s here.” 

The girl gives her a weird look. “I can literally hear the shower running, you know.”

Adora grits her teeth, but forces herself to smile politely. “Oh, yeah. Sorry, but I was just trying to protect you.”

“Protect me from what?”

Three minutes later, the girl is gone and Catra is out of the shower, her hair wet and slightly tangled. 

“Hey, did a girl named Ally show up?” she asks, looking around the room. “We were supposed to meet up for - well, you know.”

Adora pushes down a spike of jealousy and gives Catra a smirk. “Sorry, she bailed after hearing about your long history of STDs.”

Catra’s eyes widen. “You little shit.”

Adora prepares for another yelling fight, but Catra doesn’t seem too preoccupied by the fact that her would-be fuck buddy now thinks she’s a walking STD factory. She just laughs and jumps onto Adora’s bed, opening her laptop.

“What do you think?” she calls over to Adora. “Thai or tacos for takeout tonight?”

“Tacos.” 

“Get over here, then.”

Adora sits down next to her. Catra rubs her head against Adora’s shirt like it’s a towel, then gives her head a shake, spraying Adora with water droplets. “Will you get the knots out?”

“You’re useless,” Adora says fondly, already running her fingers through Catra’s hair. Catra lets out a contented humming noise and settles back against her, and Adora’s stupid stomach does the fluttering thing again. 

_ This is fine,  _ she reminds herself.  _ I’m not into Catra. _

//

But she can’t quite convince herself of that fact, so she ends up doing what she always does in a crisis; she goes to Bow for help.

“Don’t tell Glimmer and Mermista, okay?” Adora asks as they spread out a blanket on the north quad lawn. “Not yet, anyway. They’ll just laugh at me and say  _ I told you so. _ ”

“You got it,” Bow smiles. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”   


“I, um - ” Adora clears her throat nervously. “I think I might like Catra but like, who knows! It could just be platonic, right? I mean, yeah, she’s pretty and funny and really not a terrible person once she stopped stealing all my chocolate milk, but that doesn’t mean I like her, right? Right?”

“Slow down, Adora,” Bow says. “Even if you did like her, it wouldn’t be a bad thing, would it?”

Adora frowns. “But I can’t like her. She’s  _ Catra _ .”

“If you ask me, it sounds like you already do,” Bow says. “But don’t stress over this. Take some time to figure it out, you know? There’s no rush. It took Glimmer three years to figure out she liked me, remember?”

“Pfft,” Adora snorts. “More like it took her three years to  _ tell _ you she liked you.”

Bow’s jaw drops. “Wait, what?”

“Anyways,” Adora says. “There’s no figuring out necessary! Really. I don’t like Catra. That’s it. I’ve decided.”

“Alright,” Bow says, wrapping an arm around here. “But just remember, I’m here to talk any time you want.”

“Thanks, Bow."

“And Adora?”   


“Yeah?”

Bow grins at her happily. “We told you so.”

Adora throws a handful of grass at him and starts folding up the blanket. 

She’s not into Catra.

//

Adora is in bed the next night, almost asleep, when the door bangs open and Catra stumbles in. There are several thumping noises, which Adora knows from past experience are from Catra’s combat boots being dropped on the floor, and then a muffled “Shit, sorry Adora,” which makes Adora smile sleepily. Catra’s clearly trying not to wake her up, and it’s cute.

_ Not cute,  _ she reminds herself.  _ Not. _

Catra flops into bed, the springs creaking a little underneath her, and Adora relaxes back into a dreamy haze, knowing that Catra is home and safe. She’s almost asleep again when she hears something that jolts her wide awake.

There’s a rustling of sheets, a squeak of bedsprings, and then Catra -

Catra  _ moans _ .

Adora’s entire body suddenly feels burning hot. She lies completely still, not wanting Catra to know she’s still awake, and prays that she’s just hearing things. 

But she’s not. There’s a moment of silence and then Catra moans again, quietly but distinctly. Adora opens one eye slightly and chances a quick glance over towards Catra’s bed, and what she sees makes her feel like she’s dying.

Catra’s lying on her back, her hair spread out messily on her pillowcase and her hand between her legs. There’s a sheet covering her from the waist down, but Adora can see her arm moving underneath it in an unmistakable rhythm. Catra’s eyes are closed and she’s biting down on her bottom lip, and Adora’s mouth goes dry.

Catra lets out a desperate whining noise, pushing herself up off the bed a little bit. Adora bites down on her own lip to keep herself from making any sound. She doesn’t think she’s ever been this turned on in her life.

It seems like she’s lying there for hours, but finally Catra chokes out a whispered  _ “Fuck”  _ that has Adora shivering all over, and she knows that Catra’s finished. She pushes her face into her pillow and tries to slow her racing heartbeat, wondering how the hell she’s supposed to sleep after all of that, and fuck - 

She’s so into Catra.

//

Adora spends the next day trying to avoid Catra. She can’t even look at her roommate without blushing, and she can’t imagine trying to have a conversation; she wouldn’t be able to form a single coherent sentence. So she hangs out in Glimmer and Mermista’s room, going over terms for their linguistics quiz next Monday with Mermista. Eventually, though, Mermista kicks her out.

“I have a date with Perfuma tonight,” she says. “And like, you can't spend your entire Saturday just sitting in here studying. That’s so lame.”

“Thanks,” Adora mutters, gathering up her flashcards. “Well, I’ll see you later then.” As she walks back to her own room, she hopes with all her heart that Catra’s not there. 

That hope is immediately dashed when she opens the door to find Catra lounging in her chair, feet thrown up onto her desk, a lazy grin on her face.

“Hey, Adora,” she says. 

Adora blushes so fast, it’s like a knee-jerk reaction. She can literally feel the blood rushing to her face. “Hey,” she manages to reply.

“I was just wondering where you were,” Catra continues. “I was thinking - do you want to get some sushi tonight? I’ll buy. I figure I owe you one for getting the takeout last time.”

“No,” Adora says. Too forcefully, too quickly. “Sorry, but I can’t. I mean, I should probably work on this project I have for stats, is all.” 

“Come on,” Catra says, pushing at Adora’s arm playfully. The simple touch is enough to make Adora’s insides feel like they’re rearranging themselves. “You have the whole rest of the weekend to finish your math shit. Live a little.”

“Catra, I really can’t,” Adora says, and she means it. Having dinner with Catra sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. Adora is absolutely certain that she’d end up saying or doing something completely stupid, and Catra would end up figuring out that Adora heard her last night, and then it would end up a gigantic mess and Adora would never live it down. “Not tonight, okay?”

Some kind of shadow passes over Catra’s face for a moment, but then she smiles again. “No problem, Adora. It’s all good.” She gets out of her chair, grabs her jacket, and walks out the door, leaving Adora with the vague sense that she’s said something wrong. 

Adora collapses onto her bed and groans, wondering how she’s going to get through the rest of the year.

//

Catra starts hooking up with a lot more girls.

Adora knows that she plays the field - she’s met two of Catra’s girls already - but this is a whole new level. Catra starts going out almost every night and coming home with messy hair and hickeys or lipstick smudges all over her mouth. She blows Adora off on TV Thursdays two weeks in a row, and barely ever has dinner with her anymore.

It’s enough to drive Adora insane. 

She watches Catra come back in the middle of the night, covered in marks that someone else made, and it makes her ache. She wants to be the one leaving marks on Catra, just like she wants to be the one holding Catra’s hand and making her laugh and waking up next to her. But she can’t say anything, because if there’s one thing she’s sure of, it’s that Catra isn’t the relationship type. Adora would rather stay silent and remain friends with her than ruin everything because she can’t get her stupid feelings under control.

She doesn’t bother to hide her disdain for Catra’s hookups, though.

“Okay, seriously?” she asks one night, after walking in on Catra pushing a redheaded girl up against the door. “Do you even have standards? That girl is a total bitch.”

Catra raises her eyebrows. “And you know this how?”

“She threw a pen at Glimmer’s head during sociology because Glimmer wouldn’t share her chips.”

Catra just shrugs. “She has a nice ass.”

“Whatever,” Adora huffs. “You’re disgusting.”

“At least I can get some,” Catra snaps. “Jesus, Adora, take a pill. When was the last time you even got laid?”

Adora turns red. Her mouth opens, but no sound escapes. Catra smirks at her, looking unbearably satisfied. “Yeah, that’s what I thought.”

Adora storms out and slams the door, and it’s just like old times.

//

They keep fighting, and it feels like they’ve returned to the beginning of the year. Catra eats all of Adora’s food and makes fun of her fashion sense with a meaner edge to her voice than Adora is used to now. Adora criticizes every single girl who stops by their dorm wearing a little too much lipstick or eyeshadow and stops letting Catra into her bed to watch TV.

It’s stupid, and pointless, but something between them is broken. Adora wants to fix it, but she doesn’t know how. All she can do is make it worse.

The more she wants to pull Catra in, the more she pushes her away. She can’t even remember what it’s like to not feel jealous at this point. 

One night when she comes back to the room to see Catra lying on her bed with a blonde girl who looks like she’s auditioning as Taylor Swift’s stunt double, Adora can’t take it anymore. 

“Hey!” she yells. “You! Blondie! Flavor of the day! Get out of this room right now!”

The girl jumps up and runs for the door, looking terrified. Adora smiles in satisfaction; at least someone around here still respects her.

Catra gets up too, her eyes narrowed. “Adora, what the fuck are you doing?” 

“Getting that girl out of here so I can do my homework without watching you two film a live-action sex tape,” Adora snaps. “I didn’t sign up for this shit.”

“What’s wrong with you?”

“What’s wrong with  _ you? _ ” Adora yells. “You don’t ever hang out with me anymore! Every day you just go out and bang another girl instead of keeping up your side of our friendship! Excuse me for being sick of watching you play tonsil hockey with every idiot girl on campus!”

Catra’s jaw clenches and she steps closer to Adora. They’re face to face now, and Adora can feel her heart racing, but she tries to ignore it. “You know, Adora, if you don’t quit attacking me every time I bring a girl around, I’m gonna start thinking you’re homophobic or something.”

Adora’s mouth falls open. “ _ What? _ ”

“Well, what else would you call it?” Catra demands. “You’re always fine with me until I’m hooking up with a girl, and then suddenly you act like I’m the scum of the earth. I mean, what am I supposed to think? It’s not like - ” 

Adora takes one step to Catra and kisses her. 

It’s hard and insistent, and for one heart-stopping moment Adora doesn’t think that Catra is going to respond, but then Catra presses her fingers to the edge of Adora’s jawline and kisses back. Her lips are even softer than Adora imagined, and when her tongue pushes against Adora’s bottom lip, Adora forgets how to think.

Then Catra pulls back, and Adora is left staring at her like a lovesick idiot.

“Wow,” Adora says giddily, the word falling out before she can stop it. 

Catra rolls her eyes. “Don’t ruin it.”

She leans in again, and Adora doesn’t ruin it.

Many kisses later, they end up lying on Adora’s bed, curling up together like they do when they’re watching TV. Adora settles into Catra’s arms and thinks about how much she’s missed this.

“I can’t believe you thought I was homophobic,” Adora laughs, sliding a hand into Catra’s. “That’s literally unbelievable.”

“Shut up,” Catra mutters. “What was I supposed to think? You turned me down when I asked you out, you gave me death stares every time I brought a girl back to the room…”

Adora sits bolt upright, confused. “I did  _ what _ ?”

“Turned me down. Rejected me. Said no. How many synonyms do you want?” 

“When did you ever ask me out?”

“Like a week ago,” Catra says, as if it’s a fact. “Remember? I asked if you wanted to get sushi with me.”   


Adora feels a hysterical laugh pushing its way out of her throat. “Catra, that wasn’t asking me out.”

“I said I was buying!”

“It doesn’t count as asking someone out if the person doesn’t know they’re being asked out.”

“Oh,” Catra frowns. “Yeah, well, I don’t know much about this relationship stuff.”

“Me either, but even I know that,” Adora says. She’s still laughing, but then Catra’s words sink in. “Wait, relationship stuff? What exactly are you saying?”

“You know what I’m saying.”

“Actually, I don’t. I think you’re going to have to spell it out for me.”

“Adora - ” 

“Come on, Catra,” Adora teases. “Do you have something to say to me or not?” She places a finger under Catra’s chin and tips her face up, smiling at the blush that’s spreading across Catra’s cheeks.

“I hate you,” Catra mutters. “Will you go out with me?”

Adora feels the flutter in her stomach again, stronger than ever, and this time she doesn’t have to push it away. “Of course I will, you idiot.”

“This doesn’t mean I’ve gone all soft,” Catra says firmly. “Not one bit. Got it?”

“Heh. Yeah, alright.”

Catra frowns. “What?”

“You like me,” Adora grins. “That’s so embarrassing for you.”

“Shut  _ up _ ,” Catra groans. “God, you’re intolerable.”

“And yet here you are, tolerating me.”

Catra rolls her eyes, but the corner of her mouth is curved up in a smile.

“Besides,” Adora says. “If you really can’t stand me, you know how to shut me up.”

Catra smirks at her now, that annoying, smug, sarcastic smirk that Adora has come to love, and leans in to kiss her again.

//

When Adora tells her friends about Catra at breakfast the next day, Glimmer spews strawberry milk across the dining hall table.

“You’re  _ dating _ now?”

“Yeah,” Adora says, smiling. She doesn’t think she’s stopped smiling since last night. “Pretty great, isn’t it?”

“It’s so great,” Bow says, wrapping an arm around her. “I knew you’d figure it out.”

“Yeah, it’s great,” Mermista says. “Do you guys want to go out tonight? Perfuma’s friend Scorpia is having a party.”

Adora eyes her suspiciously. “And you want us to go why, exactly?”

“Uh, because you guys are my friends and I love you?” 

Adora, Bow, and Glimmer all just stare at her. 

“Okay, that didn’t sound convincing even to me,” Mermista admits. “I made a bet with Perfuma and I need proof that Adora and Catra are dating to collect on it.”

“You  _ bet _ on me?”

“Just a little bit.”

Catra walks into the dining hall and makes her way over to them, jumping into Adora’s lap. “Hey.”

“Hey,” Adora says, leaning down to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. 

Mermista pumps her fist. “I’m so going to win this bet.”

//

The party is at one of the campus sorority houses, and Adora and Catra can hear the music from a block away. As they stand on the front porch waiting for Bow and Glimmer to show up, Adora shivers slightly. It’s late autumn now, and while Etheria usually isn’t that cold until winter sets in properly, there’s a chill breeze in the air.

“Are you cold?” Catra asks.

Adora sniffs. “No.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Okay, I’m a little cold,” Adora admits. “But whatever. It’s fine.”

Catra shakes her head. “You’re so dumb,” she says, shrugging out of her jacket - the black denim one that Adora hasn’t ever seen her without - and wrapping it around Adora’s shoulders. “Here.”

Adora slips her arms through the sleeves and grins at Catra. “Look at you, being all chivalrous.”

“Shut up.”

“Adora! Catra!” Bow yells, bounding up the porch steps and wrapping them in a hug. Glimmer follows behind, looking a little less energetic but excited all the same. “Hey, Adora, that jacket looks kind of familiar. Where have I seen it before?”   


“Hm,” Glimmer muses, pretending to think hard. “I feel like I saw it on someone at the breakfast table this morning. Wonder who it possibly could have been.”

Catra glares at them. “Stop it! I’m not going soft.”

“Did we say you were?” Glimmer asks in mock indignation. “We would never make such accusations.”

Catra crosses her arms, and Adora laughs.

“You’re just going to have to get used to this,” she says. “Don’t worry, they’ll grow on you.”

“Doubt it.”

“Hey, now,” Adora says. “ _ You _ grew on me. That means anything is possible.”

Catra grumbles, Bow and Glimmer laugh, and they go inside.

//

The music is deafening, and a couple hours and a few drinks later, Adora’s head is spinning. She’s met too many people to count - including Perfuma, a sweet-looking blonde girl with flowers in her hair who looks at Mermista like she put the stars in the sky - and almost gotten in a fistfight with a lacrosse boy over which one of them would get the last vodka lemonade on the table. 

She also hasn’t left Catra’s side all night, but then Mermista drags her away for a game of beer pong, leaving Catra with Bow and Glimmer. 

“You better not screw this up,” Mermista says. 

Adora scoffs. “I’ve never lost a game of beer pong in my life.”

Sure enough, they end up destroying the other team, although that may have been because the purple-haired girl was more engaged with calculating trajectory arcs than actually taking her shots. Adora spins around and grabs Mermista in a hug to celebrate their victory.

“We won!” she beams. “I have to go tell Catra!”

Catra is sitting on the sofa with Bow and Glimmer, holding a shot glass. As Adora pushes through the crowd towards them, what she hears ruins her good mood. 

“I’m  _ telling _ you,” Catra says drunkenly, grabbing Glimmer’s shoulder and shaking her. “I saw the hottest girl. You guys have to help me find her again. Like, she’s the prettiest person I’ve ever seen.”

“Alright,” Glimmer says soothingly. “I think you should put down the tequila. Seven shots is probably enough.”

“But she’s so hot, Sparkles, you don’t understand…”

Adora’s heart sinks. She should have known better than to expect that Catra would be satisfied with her. Catra has been through so many girls that Adora is probably nothing special. Really, she should have seen this coming.

It still hurts.

“Hey, guys,” Adora says, careful to keep her tone neutral. “How are you?”

“I’m looking for this really hot girl,” Catra says, blinking sleepily at Bow. “Can you help me?”

“Uh, okay,” Adora says. “What does she look like?” She really doesn’t want to help Catra find a new girl, but she wants to at least get a look at the competition.

“Um, taller than me, really strong, pretty grey eyes…” Catra trails off, glancing up at Adora, and then her eyes open wide. “Oh my god, you’re her.”

Adora lets out a laugh of pure relief. “You’re such an idiot.”

Catra stands up, swaying a little, and reaches for Adora’s hand. “Are you single? Please say yes.”

“No, I’m not, actually,” Adora says, forcing herself to remain serious. Bow and Glimmer are rolling around on the couch laughing like hyenas. “I’m dating a girl right now.”

“Oh,” Catra says, her face falling. 

Adora swats her arm. “I’m literally your girlfriend, you moron.”

Catra grins at her. “Really?”

“Really. Now let’s get you home. I don’t want Mermista yelling at me if you puke on the floor.” 

“Not going to puke,” Catra mumbles, but she lets Adora lead her outside anyways.

Heading back to the dorm seems to sober Catra up, and she slips a hand into Adora’s as they walk. They pass the campus convenience store, and Catra comes to a halt.

“Hey, Adora,” she says. “Can we get some chocolate milk?”

Adora sighs but lets Catra drag her inside, and they find the dairy aisle right next to the cash registers. Catra presses her nose against the glass while Adora picks up a half-gallon of milk, and stands behind her, wrapping her arms around her waist, while Adora pays.

“Are you happy now?” Adora asks once they’re back in their room. 

Catra leans over and pulls Adora’s hand over to her mouth, taking a sip from Adora’s glass. “Yeah,” she says with a dopey smile. “I am.”

“You know,” Adora says. “This chocolate milk tastes pretty good, but I think you’d taste even better.”

Catra chokes on her milk. “No way,” she splutters. “There is  _ no way  _ you just made a dirty joke.”

“You better believe it,” Adora says with a grin. “What, you think you’re the only one who can make jokes?”

“Well, well,” Catra says, raising one eyebrow. “The times are changing, huh.”

“Changing for the better?” 

“You better believe it.”

Adora looks at Catra sitting next to her, soft and warm and beautiful in the dim light of the dorm room lamps, and feels the now-familiar flutter in her stomach, accompanied by a warm rush of happiness. As Catra leans forward to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth, Adora has to agree. 

This is definitely for the better. 

**Author's Note:**

> i'm a merfuma truther and what about it! it's the superior ship for both mermista and perfuma
> 
> follow me on [twitter](https://twitter.com/thymewars)


End file.
